By guest contributor Jeremy Swan
Quote
‘The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What's left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars.’ Bertolt Brecht (German playwright and poet)
News
Writing in Friday Five last month, Jonathan Tame examined the relational underpinning of democratic structures in Egypt and argued that the trappings of democracy are valued only insofar as they lead to greater freedom and prosperity. For some Egyptians therefore, the removal of President Morsi was justified by his apparent failure to secure these gains for society as a whole. Yet so far, the ouster has brought only political intransigence and relational rupture.
The common ground established between the various groups in Egyptian society during the first days of the Egyptian Revolution is in danger of being lost as recent upheavals take their toll. The relational gaps in society, opened up during the rise and fall of Mohammed Morsi, can only widen as long as the current violence continues.
As the clashes between security forces and protestors rumble on, the danger is that the violence becomes self-perpetuating and contributes to the further undermining of relationships in Egyptian society – hate begets hate, to use the words of Martin Luther King. For the benefit of the whole community, all sides must first exercise restraint and bring an end to the bloodshed.
One of the major underlying issues of the Egyptian Revolution has been the lack of parity between the government and the governed. That sense of disenfranchisement which precluded the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 has since returned, with different sides each complaining that their voices are not being heard.
As a result, some people are driven to violence in the hope that they can force a solution to Egypt’s problems. They are wrong. Only when the violence has stopped and the process of reconciliation begun can the Egyptian people start to see their vision of a freer and more prosperous society take shape. Violence will only make things worse.
Read on…
Daniel Philpott, Associate Professor of Political Science and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, recently wrote a book entitled ‘Just and Unjust Peace’, in which he called for a season of reconciliation following the Arab Spring. Philpott discusses his ideas in a blog post for Oxford University Press.
Walk the talk
In the west, it is all too easy to take for granted our freedom to participate in public life. Yet the reality is that many people around the world do not share these same democratic rights. How are you exercising your democratic freedoms?
The last word
From the Bible, Matthew chapter 5, verse 9: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.’
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